Peter Elkas - Repeat Offender

Ex-Local Rabbit Peter Elkas is back with his third solo album after taking a bit of a break after 2007's Charlie Sexton-produced Wall Of Fire. Evidently he revisited the soul and R&B crates for Repeat Offender, an early rock 'n' roll love-in recorded mostly at home with the help of Ian McGettigan (Thrush Hermit) and out on Joel Plaskett's boutique New Scotland label.

Elkas's songs are the dramatic, crooning sort, and he and his band pull off an easy blue-eyed soul with nostalgic hooks, sepia-stained backup vocals and horns. The tunes veer toward comfortable homogeneity, and would make the perfect iPod soundtrack for long dog walks. (Makes sense, considering Elkas is a dog-walker in his other life.)

That said, it's not without surprises. Tiny Valentine bursts with almost absurd earworm potential; swaggering, screeching sax and staccato piano on Misery shake things up; and soaring vocals make Melody kind of brave.